


Reassurances

by eruriotica (minxiebutt)



Series: primal pack family [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bonding, Cuddling & Snuggling, Multi, Polyamory in the background, Sharing a Bed, Talking About Relationships, primal kink in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13604373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minxiebutt/pseuds/eruriotica
Summary: Erwin and Mike take an overnight trip, so Levi and Nanaba get some quality bonding.





	Reassurances

She knocks on Moblit’s office door first, whining with exaggeratedly long vowels, “Give me something to do.”

“Tell me where the whiskey is,” he snaps irritably, eyes still glued to his monitor as he brushes colour into a detailed diagram of a tomato plant.

“Hanji said you can’t drink until you meet your deadline,” Nanaba replies. Moblit actually sits back in his chair and raises his eyes to the ceiling for a moment before letting out a groan. She tries to placate him by saying, “I mean, I could get it for you if you’re almost done….”

It earns her a rude, “But I’m not, so get the fuck outta my room, Nan.”

She sighs and shuts the door before stomping down the hallway and sitting on the top step like a pouting child. Her phone sits heavy in her pocket and she wants to text Mike, to steal some of his attention, but she knows that’s too immature. It’s just a night away with Erwin to resolidify their bond. It’s been nearly six months since Levi moved in, and the two men are feeling out of sync. Nanaba knows it is a good thing, but she can’t help the spark of jealousy, even though she rightfully knows that there is no reason for it.

Besides, she’ll have something to do soon enough. Moblit will emerge from his hide out in a few hours and throw himself down onto the couch, and then she can fuss over him, rub out the muscles of his hands and shoulders and fetch him whiskey to help him relax. His workload has been fluctuating in the last few months, jumping to either end of the spectrum without notice. And Hanji will be late from work tonight, at the mercy of academia.

Levi’s home, but he’s a hostile ball of anxiety with a spray bottle of bleach, and she wants nothing to do with him. Maybe when he’s done cleaning the en suite he shares with Erwin in their master bedroom, she’ll bug him for a spare chore.

For now, she settles on making dinner. It’s earlier than usual, but that just gives her more time and so she can make something that requires more prep than usual.

As predicted, Moblit emerges two hours later. The timer on the oven estimates another twenty minutes until dinner, but that doesn’t stop Nanaba from reaching into the back of the coat closet to pull the bottle of American Honey out. She fills the tumbler halfway but Moblit shakes his head, snatches the bottle, and tops off.

“Fiiiine,” she drawls and peeks inside the oven one more time before she runs upstairs to fetch Levi.

In the early evening glow, she finds him by the light on in the closet.

“Hey,” she murmurs gently, though not to avoid frightening him. Levi is never not aware of his surroundings. “Dinner soon. Can I help?”

Levi turns to look up at her from the circle of socks, half sorted and paired, half single. “Have you talked to them?”

Nana shakes her head, and after a moment, asks, “Have you?”

“No.”

“Good,” she says, trying to sound like it's actually a good thing that they're both itching for their mates and suffering together instead.

Levi follows her down to the kitchen. She gets whiskey for him as well, needing to serve to feel like she's in her proper place. She puts together their dinner plates and delivers them to the table. She cleans the kitchen when they're all done, and when they scuttle into the living room to watch television, she sits beside Moblit so that she can rub his shoulders. Hanji comes home not long after that and throws herself down on the couch beside them, and unbidden, Nana slides to the floor, removes her crocs, and rubs her feet.

“Missin’ your man?” Hanji teases. Nanaba shrugs. “He does work you hard. I can imagine all this time to yourself don't feel right. And Levi, I smell the bleach from over here. What the fuck.”

“Whatever,” Levi scoffs, rubbing the back of his neck. “They all needed it.”

“I mean, sure.” Hanji leans her head back when thumbs press into sore metatarsals. She is the only dominant in the home tonight. The power is in her hands but she is lenient. “Y’all’re being good for once. Mike and Erwin will be happy to hear.”

While Nana openly beams at the praise, Levi scoffs again and turns away. When the noirette gets up and leaves the living room, Hanji takes her feet back in silent permission for Nanaba to follow him.

She follows the sounds to find he’s in the en suite, testing the spray of the shower. “Can I join?”

Levi shrugs, the closest he comes to an affirmative in these moods. She doesn’t waste time retrieving a pair of clean pajamas, instead, stripping down and stepping in right after him. Being the littlest bit taller, she stands behind him, reaching over his head to collect water to wash her face. There’s a long stretch of silence between them, broken only by trading places under the spray, and it’s when they’re done and standing under the hot water just for the sake of it that he speaks.

“I trust Erwin.” Levi pushes his hair back again. “I know I can trust him. Do you trust Mike?”

“Yeah.” It’s her first serious relationship. She hasn’t been hurt like Levi has. She’s never been cheated on or abandoned or sent away like an unwanted animal. She has never been at the center of an imploding structure. She’s only had Mike and the pack.

Levi turns his face into the water for another rinse. “I’m practically married to him but….”

“Old habits?”

He shrugs, then nods, then turns to look at her. “I’m happy when he takes care of everyone, but I get jealous, even when I have no reason-- no right to. I remind myself that he’s not losing interest, that he’s taking care of everyone, and I know I get the best treatment of all but I still… panic.”

She loops her arms around his neck. “I get it, too.”

Hands settle on her hips and slide around to the small of her back, nails skirting. “But you don’t understand how much bad relationships have fucked me up.”

“No, but I know how much you trust Erwin.”

He stiffens in her hold and that branch of the conversation is clearly ended. Levi’s eyes dart to hers. “I need… something, I can’t explain it-- I never have to explain what I need to Erwin, he just knows. And at work, I just… I lost it. I felt abandoned, knowing he wouldn’t be here when I got here, even though I fucking know better.”

That feeling is too familiar. “Do you,” she starts and then asks, “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?”

“You need something, too?”

She leans her forehead onto his and nods against it. Their noses brush. After drying off, they each put on one of Erwin’s t-shirts and pairs of briefs before piling all the spare blankets onto the bed. Levi takes his usual side of the bed and she claims Erwin’s after she returns with her phone and extra long charger cable. Side by side, they scroll through their phones, distracting one another from the ache with funny things and cute animals. They’re about ten minutes down into Nanaba’s facebook timeline, laughing at the bizarre shares and wondering if satire is understood, when they get to a post made by a mutual friend.

“Did you know?” Levi asks her after a long stretch of silence. “They seemed so happy.”

“She never said anything. Neither of them did.” In the search bar, she types the name of their mutual friend’s soon-to-be ex-wife. “Nothing here, either. It’s….”

“Sudden,” Levi finished for her.

“And strange.”

“Not so strange,” Levi tells her. “These things are always out of nowhere.”

What she thinks he doesn’t say-- _they were always out of nowhere for me, too._ “Do you think they’ll make us pick sides?”

“Oh, yeah.” Levi scratches his chin. “I dunno what happened, but I guarantee, they’ll both wanna be justified.”

“No, they're more mature than that, they'll understand if--”

“Nana,” Levi interrupts. He rolls onto his side and props his head up with his hand. There's a few breaths between them before he musters up the words he needs to continue. “This kind of heartbreak is illogical. Everything is painful. More than a marriage ends, sometimes all the surrounding friendships end, too. You can't go to the same places with the same people. You're alone and you have to start all over.”

Nanaba puts her phone down and mirrors his position, scooting closer until she can toss an arm over his shoulders and a leg over his hip. She doesn't know the finer details, but she knows that Levi is divorced, that tumultuous dating led him to settle for the first person who didn't treat him like trash, only for him to be thrown out, anyway. According to Mike, it took over a year for Levi to believe Erwin genuinely cared for him, that Erwin wouldn't suddenly change.

“Every part of who you've become is tied up in someone else,” Levi murmurs, closing his eyes, and she wants to tell him that he doesn't have to say anything, but she lets him speak. “You start to resent them, and resent the parts of you that reflect them.”

Nana thinks of the ways Mike’s habits influence her, and understands. She thinks of the way Erwin started holding his cups and glasses by the rim the way Levi does, something so little. She can't imagine crafting habits for years only to eventually hate them all. It drives a cold spike into her chest, a phantom idea of pain she can't fully know without experience.

“But, that's something I don't think I ever have to do again,” Levi murmurs and opens his eyes, brows furrowing when he looks at her expression. “Hey. It's no good to be afraid.”

“Sorry,” she says and rubs her face into the pillow. Levi's hand cups her cheek and she closes the distance between them, nuzzling into the hot underside of his jaw, scraping her nose on the stubble.

“Come on, I think I saw a cooking video under her post.” Levi gropes around for Nana’s phone and then punches in the passcode. There's indeed a cooking video, a quick tutorial on extra fluffy pancakes. When it's over, Levi clicks on the video and sends the link to himself. “Let’s make these for breakfast.”

“With oreos in them?”

“Sure.”

A few minutes later, Levi leans down and nibbles the bridge of her nose. “Stop thinking about it. You're turning into a dark cloud.”

Nana sighs and rubs a hand down her face. “Do you think I'll ever go through it? Mike and I got together so fast.”

“Fast isn't bad,” Levi says plainly. “When you know, you know, and there's nothing wrong with jumping in.”

“But, you and Erwin--”

“Don't compare relationships,” Levi interrupts, suddenly very serious. “You don't need to worry right now, Nana.”

“You really think?” She pushes her face into his chest and he wraps strong arms around her as she does the same on him. The announcement is still shaking her up, so drastic and unexpected as it is. None of these concerns were even concerns ten minutes ago.

“Yeah.” Levi slides one leg between hers and hooks his knee around. “Yeah, I really think.”

.

She gets up when Levi does, even though it's way earlier than she normally would. After zombying around underfoot for ten minutes, Levi picks her up, deposits her on the kitchen island, and shoves a hot mug of coffee into her hands.

“Jesus, you're like a sleepy toddler,” he tells her. “Drink, then we will cook.”

Moblit eats at the table with them and then takes a plate upstairs for Hanji with the explanation that she’s at a very crucible point of writing a paper, and to pull her away from that will derail her whole thought process. Nana's just finished washing the dishes when Levi’s phone chirps.

“Erwin wants tacos for lunch when they get back. You work today?”

“No.”

“Good. Mob’s gonna be tending to Hanji all day, you can come to the store with me.”

Nana dries her hands in a dish towel. “But I hate grocery shopping!”

“I'm not touching a single package of oreos.”

She thinks about calling his bluff, because Erwin loves those cookies as much as she does, but it's too risky. It's quiet at the store this early, so they're in and out relatively quick, and back at home, Erwin's car is already in the driveway.

“If you had a tail, you'd be wagging,” Levi teases her as he parallel parks along the street.

“So would you,” she retorts. Not the most clever, but still true. Nana collects the bags from between her feet.

“About last night,” Levi says abruptly. He hesitates, looking down. She leans into his personal space and slides a hand along his thigh to support her weight so that she can kiss his chin.

“You're all scruffy,” she breathes.

Levi tilts his head down, meets her eyes, and presses his lips to hers. It earns him a content smile. He says, “I've never thought I'd be okay with sharing, or in a family like this, but it's the happiest I've ever been. I've never felt safe until now.”

They take a few moments in the car, mouths close and sharing breath between chaste kisses. Something about Levi's confession does away with those last tendrils of worry from the night before. 

**Author's Note:**

> look at that rating. it is the super rare G rating, it happens once a year. Kudos and comment for good luck.


End file.
